BYE BYE ISIS! Record Sale of Alcohol in Post-ISIS Mosul, Iraq

ISIS banned alcohol along with smoking, colourful clothes and even many children's toys.

THE booze is flowing in Mosul as elated residents celebrate the near-defeat of ISIS as the terror group is driven out of town.

Under ISIS, alcohol was banned, with drinkers publicly whipped in the street and smugglers often put to death.

A Mosul resident forks out to buy booze after years of it being banned by ISIS

An Iraqi man buys a bottle of spirits after the terror group was forced outof its de facto Iraqi capital

But after shops started selling alcohol again, people have been flocking to stock up on beer like Heineken and Miller, whisky and the Iraqi liquor arak.

One shop keeper said he was serving 1,000 customers every day as thirsty locals toast the end of ISIS.

Prices have returned to their pre-ISIS levels with 25cl of spirits costing less than a fiver.

Locals desperate for a drink would pay £80 for a litre bottle of spirits under the regime’s grip.

Shopkeeper Abu Haidar said: “In the afternoon it gets very busy here.“For three years, people were deprived of it yet they had been used to it before.

Iraqi Christians celebrate the end of ISIS in Qaraqosh, near Mosul

Booze sales in the city have rocketed as locals flock to shops to buy drink to celebrate.

“There used to be bars, clubs and casinos. All of them were closed and only now are people returning to drinking.”

Customer Karim Jassem said: “I feel so relieved – there were a few illegal stores recently and people selling from their homes, but this is a proper licensed shop so it’s cheaper and we want it cheaper.”

But Jassem also spoke with fear on his face of the risks he had to take under jihadist rule.

He said: “I was afraid. I would drink and by 11pm leave my friend’s house and drive home using the back streets.”

Those caught smoking or drinking faced death while even those caught wearing the "wrong kind" of trousers would be thrown into jail for months on end.

After a seven-month war,the militants are besieged in the few districts they still control, along with hundreds of thousands of residents trapped alongside them, short on food and living under daily bombardment.

Mannequins in clothes shops are adorned with colourful clothing that was banned under the militants.

Up to 15 children’s toy shops have reopened in the city after the fanatics banned toys with faces or eyes.